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Excerpts from WEEDING OUT TEEN SMOKERS THE BEST WAY TO STOP SMOKING IS TO STOP KIDS BEFORE THEY START

By ROY CLANCY, The Calgary Sun [10/13/99]

It's as unpleasant to contemplate as something a three-pack-a-day smoker coughs up in the morning.

New, sad statistics show tobacco use among 15- to 19-year-olds in Alberta has grown from 24% five years ago to 29% today.

The appalling numbers bewilder those of us who've battled nicotine addiction and lost loved ones to the ravages of smoking.

We'd even begun to hope future generations might not have to cope with the death and disease that goes along with "the habit."

Now we learn there is a depressing reversal of a trend that saw the smoking rate among teenagers plunge from 42% to 16% between 1980 and 1991 -- years when cigarette prices soared.

There is a lone bright spot in this haze.

The Alberta Tobacco Reduction Alliance has just kicked off a $ 300,000 ad campaign that will run for six months and asks: "What do you think -- should Alberta be doing more?"

The alliance, made up of 65 organizations, is pretty sure what the answer will be. Its own research shows 94% of Albertans (and 93% of smokers!) agree everything possible should be done to stop youth from starting to smoke.

It's no surprise smokers are solidly behind the idea. They understand -- better than those who've never lit up -- how addictive tobacco is and how pervasive its impact on their health and wealth.

As smokers struggle to leave the habit behind forever, it's painful to watch our children lured by the same glamourous images and peer pressure that suckered previous generations. The cycle repeats and the tobacco companies continue to turn an unhealthy profit.

At that age, rebellious youths laugh at the warnings. It's hard for them to contemplate hitting 20, much less wheezing their way to 40.

And they have plenty of prominent role models showing them -- by example -- that smoking is a pretty cool thing to do.

There's Brad Pitt puffing on a cigarette on the latest cover of Rolling Stone. Mind you, the fact he's also clad in a mini-dress reveals Pitt's probably a bit of butt-head in the brains department anyway.

What's more startling are images of idols like Wayne Gretzky and Arnold Schwarzenegger contentedly chewing on a lit cigar. They are joined by galaxy of lesser lights who puff through endless movies.

It's appalling when you consider smoking causes 40,000 deaths a year in this country and 85% of smokers start before the age of 18.

Considering the cost to our health system, let's pray the latest round of anti-smoking talk isn't merely another smokescreen.

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